"He didn't do worse than Kasparov!" Kramnik on Aronian vs "his" Berlin Ending

Last Sunday we posted a video about the Aronian-Kramnik match, held in the last week of April in Zurich, Switzerland. One of the interviewees was Vladimir Kramnik, but in fact we spoke a bit longer with the former World Champion. He said a number of interesting things about the opening choice (1.e4) by his opponent Levon Aronian, and about his favorite Berlin Ending in general. Here's the video:
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Comments
noyb
1 year 1 month ago
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Very nice interview! I'll still never forgive Kramnik for ducking rematch with Garry Kimovich, but he does give good interviews.
stevefraser
1 year 1 month ago
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During that fisrt match it seemed as if Gary was not 100%, but he refused to discuss what was going on with him....any info come out later regarding his very weak play against VK?
Niima
1 year 1 month ago
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Nice interview. Thanks.
Anonymous
1 year 1 month ago
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I really think its unfair to place blame on Kramnik. I think Fide should bear the majority of the responsibility for there being no rematch. Vladimir is a principled man. He was in no way required to give Garry a rematch at all but he did at all times adhere to the governing body of chess. If the governing body of chess cannot organize the cycle then Vladimir isn't responsible for doing it for them.
redivivo
1 year 1 month ago
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As most other players he is especially principled when it is to his advantage.
Remco Gerlich
1 year 1 month ago
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You can't blame FIDE for that particular match -- Kasparov had left FIDE, and Kramnik wasn't FIDE world champion at the time. FIDE had nothing to do with it.
Zeblakob
1 year 1 month ago
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.... time "trabble".
Marc
1 year 1 month ago
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Only Morozevitch....
Yesssssssss....Go Moro
stevefraser
1 year 1 month ago
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Kramnik, the modern Petrosian...deep chess but no desire to win, just not to lose: disgraceful for our sport. In checkers this mentality lead to the first move being chosen by the TD, not the players.
Barthod
1 year 1 month ago
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Now here is a lame comment. You obviously no nothing about chess.
Brian Wall
1 year 1 month ago
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Didn't they tie an unofficial rematch of 24 games in Russia?
TomCody
1 year 1 month ago
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It is wrong and unfair to blame Kramnik that no further match against Kasparov took place!
Remember the Prague reunification agreement 2002: Kramnik fulfilled his part, risked his title and played a match against his qualified challenger Leko in 2004 whereas Kasparov destroyed the match with the then FIDE-champion Ponomariov. As much as Garry betraied Shirov and Kazimdzhanov who both had the deserved right for a match with him...
redivivo
1 year 1 month ago
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Kramnik played Leko after the latter qualified for a title match in Kramnik's own cycle, doing this didn't consist of much of a concession from Kramnik's side, he could hardly avoid to ever defend his own title again and it had already been four years. After that he said that he was under no obligation to play Kasparov since the Prague Agreement was no longer valid:
"You say that the main point is that Kasparov lacks justification to play you?
I think so. At the moment, yes. It is very sad to say but his only justification at the moment is a big name. It’s not his play, not his results, not anything. Of course he is a great player and I have great respect for him. He is a fantastic player, a huge name and the public likes him very much and justifiably so, but this is the world championship, not some private business. Peter Leko won the Candidates. He deserved to play a match. I beat Garry and now I have won this match and deserve to be World Champion. You cannot just make some deals and present some names and do whatever you want.’"
http://www.kramnik.com/eng/interviews/getinterview.aspx?id=50
Kasparov didn't "destroy" any match against Pono, he signed all papers immediately while the latter refused after making all kinds of last minute demands (for some reason he refused to play if there was a rest day before a tiebreak or if the anti-doping laboratories were placed outside Ukraine or Russia):
http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/17788/
sirschratz
1 year 1 month ago
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kramnik is simply a great chap - one can only hope he keeps on playing one or the other year
danailov on the other hand might have noticed that kramnik didn't go to the toilet once during the interview.
having players like kramnik around compensates somewhat for the danailov/topalov-shame.... or cheparinov, anybody remembering the name of this little danailov/topalov-gollum :-)
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